Road safety experts have told MPs that new vehicles should be fitted with technology that makes it impossible to exceed the speed limit, as part of evidence given to the Transport Committee’s inquiry into the Government’s road safety strategy.

During the session, witnesses argued that mandatory Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) could play a significant role in reducing collisions and improving road safety if the technology could not be overridden by drivers.

Dr Rob Torok, a pre-hospital critical care doctor with Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance, told the committee that the technology already exists and should be used to prevent vehicles from exceeding legal speed limits.

Current ISA systems, which are becoming more common in new vehicles, can typically be switched off by drivers. However, witnesses argued that future systems should be mandatory and permanently active.

Lilli Matson, Chief Safety, Health and Environment Officer at Transport for London, said mandatory ISA is already being used on around 3,000 London buses and throughout TfL’s own vehicle fleet, demonstrating that the technology can be deployed at scale.

Phil Jones, Chair of Phil Jones Associates and former head of the Welsh Government’s 20mph Task Force, supported wider use of ISA but said improvements are needed to ensure in-car systems correctly identify speed limits. He called for better national digital speed limit data to improve the reliability of the technology.

The committee also heard proposals for newly qualified drivers to be required to install dashcams and driver monitoring technology during their first five years on the road.

Witnesses also discussed speed enforcement and the potential benefits of introducing a default 20mph speed limit on residential roads across England, pointing to reductions in people killed and seriously injured following similar schemes in London and Edinburgh.

The Transport Committee is expected to continue gathering evidence as part of its inquiry into the Government’s road safety strategy later this year.